yoffe

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Reloop Designs Ruth Yoffe Flagstaff Article 5.March 2010

THE DEVONPORT FLAGSTAFF PAGE 42Trash to treasure helps Cambodia's poorFormer local Ruth Yoffe is back in Devonport on a whirlwind visit to promoteher overseas atd project. Thedaughter. of Itangitoto baches saviour. Sit,anYoffe and artist Michael Yoffe is the I. donor Reloop Designs. She designsbeautiful home and fashion accessori. which axe handcrafted from recy-

MARCH 5 2010Helping hands...Susan Yoffe (left) with sore of her daughter's designs andRuth Yoffe above with some of the women she is helping

recycled plastic bags collected from polluted land New York-based Ruth sellsthe colourful and waterways of Kampot in Cambodta. handicrafts, that are asbeautiful as they are Susan Yoffe said Ruth developed the practical, throughmarkets in the US. project over two years ago to raise the Next weekend aselection of Reloop de. standard of livIng and esteem for ;Ismail and signswig be on sale at Susan Yoffe's home expanding group of Cambodian women. at2124 Henn St, Narrow Neck. "Every level of Me design production These willinclude bags, baskets and generates fair wage income and develops' beltsartisan skills in the lowest economic sectors The sale takes place onFriday. March of the community," she said. 12. between 4pm - 7pm. and onSaturday. between lhant - 4pm. Further delude from Susan on 445 1894 orhttp://www.reloopdesigns.org

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THE DEVONPORT FLAGSTAFF PAGE 18InterviewAPRIL 16 2010Yoffe turns plastic bags into New York fashionIn Ruth Yoffe's world one man's rubbish is another man's treasure. Theformer Devonport schoolgirl is changing lives for some of the world's mostdisadvantaged by recycling plastic bags. She talks to Angela Kemp. Despite abig hue and cry from our su-permarket chasm when they abandoned free plasticshopping bags, they arc once again being handed out gratis without an much aa rustle of protest, Perhaps if they could be .ned into beautifid andpractical handicrafts instead of clogging up Landfillo we could all breathean environmen-tally conscious sigh of relief That is what Ruth Yotle isdoing with a gimp of disabled people in Kann., Cambodia. A one-woman aidprogramme is the hero way desnibe her project Hum waste plastic into beltsbags and other accessories. The daughter of Susan (Rangitoto baches sallow-)and Michael (portrart painter) Yolk. Ruth started Rcloop Designs a couple ofyears ago to help poor and disabled Cambodians. It's a far cry from theinternational lifestyle she enjoyed both in childhood and as a success, thlproduct designer in New York. Now 42 redo long term msident of the BigApple.she was back in Devonport last month to promote the colourful, stylishReloop &sips, each one signed by an anisan. The dpigns begin their life asused plastic bags on the stre. of Cambodia. They arc col-lected, washed.tinned into yam and crocheted before being sold in mark. around New York andbeyond. For that, dozens of disabled Cambodians go paid a her wage and Yoffegains some satisfac. Roth mend', ldeo hoe ry.oed poor c.w.o.o non that sheis helping a few out of poverty. By comparison Yoffe had a privilegedbackground. She came to Devonport logo an education when she was II. Herfamily was living in Antigua in the Car-ribean where her American father hada Unitird Nations posting. She waa-sent to boarding school at Epsom GirlsGrammar, an experience she found 'trulyawful". "Can you imagine leaving the bputithl Car-ribean to be with a bunchof fann girls. !thought I was in the Gulag." After her parenu divorced, hermother and adopted Indonesian brother Ethan, moved to Devonport to be nearto Susan's family. They reeled in Albert Road and she switched to TakapunaGrammar and then Westlake Gins month form. Because oiler father's job,Yoffeexpenerthed growing up in some far flung comers of the world includingBotswana and Indonesia. "Education wise, they were very similar. The maindifference was that school in Antigua ended at I pm when you went to thebpch. "Dad's work tended to be shoe 000 10 three year contracts, an it feltthat you were acnolly moving a or "We lived with the local people, not in mex-pat compound. He was responsible for handicnifi develop-ment which iswhorl on doing now. So it's very much in my father's footsteps except Idon't have a Whole UN staff and fundingbehind me". At school, Yoffe loved an, for which she got a scholarship. Shestudied fine an at Sydney College before reMming H Devonport where she had afortui-tous meeting at die beach. was two years out of my degree and themwas no employment on the horizon. 1 wanted to earn money roger overseas togo to graduate school. "I met Naomi Cassrells who was swimming at TorpedoBay. She on studyingjewellery with Douglas Sibbald To an a long story shon,1said there's going to be an noes "You do your jewellery and I'm going tomake ham I'd also done some jewellery with him and thought I'd do some hatpins. We did this weekend thing and set up titan Turbans. "We sold out inthe fitst thw hour; and had orders for about $3,000 worth by the end of theweekend. "We just did it for thn, for some quick money because we were bothunemployed, and were both creative We literally got sewing inachines

==========APRII 16 2010ono began making thew things nom home." However Yoffe still wanted to followher dream of going to graduate school overseas so she waved goodbye or Naomiand headed for her fasces homeland_ "As loon as I gusto the Sthtes Irealised I re-ally needed meant money and I could waitress, as Hthd Americancitizenship. "I was coming USS1.500 a week, tax fire. I made it thy missionjust to waitress six days a week and I ilVfli with a relative for free. Ihad no life but I saved money. "You are very motivated when you realise howmuch that's worth in NZ dollars. Yoffe wern to the Pran bsstitute inBrooklyn and studied for a masters degme in industrial design. She graduatedin 1995 and had onginally thought she would return to Sydney. However writhelarge student loan to repay,she felt she hod no option but to stay and worein the States. "I've hood there nearly I 13 years and now consider myself aNew Yorker" Her first job was designing sunglasses followed by top positionsfor cosmetic com-panies. "To he honest I found myself in an area of productdesign that I never wanted to be in. But you don't have many options whenyou come out "There are nvo tracks. If you are wealthy one is and can go andwork in internships for very exclusive conmanies where they don't get paid aliving wage and somebody is paying their rent. "I didn't have that option. Ihad to go into the conmremial dmign field which paid a liv-ing .1.0, "Sort.66 in the fashion and cosmetic in-dustry, fashion retad. But that's NewYork the cosmetic capital of the world." Yoffe beeline an in-store &Nondirector for international brtinds such as Bobbi Brown and Botajois. "fi wasa lot of hand work and I was thor-oughly bored. You may be canting a lot ofmoney but it's 80 hour weeks and two weeks holiday a year. "The higher upthe chain I got the less dispel, sable I ....and I could only visit NewZealand when I quit a job. "I finally decided that was it I wanted to gofreelance and I did this when the economy was boommg so it was quite an mytransition. "In 2091 after 9111. all duo came crashing down and it's notrecovered since. Yoffe lived about a mile from Ground Zero. "I was afreelance design dinretor earning a lot because I was actually being paidfor 80 hours and that was okay because I knew that when I finished for thisclient. I could have three weeks off end takes holiday. "I was doing workfor other clients as well, it NUS booming. After 9,11, four of my clientswent bankrupt and never paid their invoices. "When you are freelance thereis re-, safety nth, there is no unemployment (benefit). I had about two tothree months savings in the bank and I'd never been unemployed for more thththree week_s."The advertising agency laid off all non-pemianent designers overnight. "Sixmonths without employment is enough .... you're living off credit cads. Iswasn't just me, people start to crumble. A lot of my Of ends moved out ofthe cny as a resultYoffe came back to New Zealand in 2004 to see her familyand one if she could settle down here. "I found it difficult because! wasn'taniving back with .chilthen or manied ... I found it Ford to fit in. I hadnever worked here profes-sionally." lust over a year later she MOVed back toNew Ymic and realised dtht 9/11 had demonstrated how everything about herlife was liable to crash and change. wasn't really happy with the work twosdoing and it was time for onto reassess. to a way when you bse everythingit's die best titne to re-think because it wasn't like I was destroying acareer, the career had collapsed"I was so touched at how hard everyone worked, how enthusiastic they were,how tenacious," Ruth Yoffe on the Cambodian people who embraced her plasticbags design project'That's where the taming point came so when I got back to New York the firstthing was just surviving. Then I decided !couldn't keep doing this I wasdesigning platm and textiles and deal-ing with very uptight people on thephone. l'So thought I would volunteer my services and staned nreaarching. Ihad enough money to go somewhere for two nthnths. "My mother had been toCambodia on an coo tour and I decided to contact them because a lot of ecotours take people to view projects. She thought that would be a good sotaceto help me find someone who could really use my expertise. "They got backtome and to my surpnse said that they had a project for which they had justTHE DE901119917 FLAGSTAFF PAGE 19won an cc° award. 'Would you come out and do some design and marketing? Forone year we have been making things out of plastic bags and we have a groupof disabled artisens'." But on anival in Cambodialloffe rea/ised she hadbeen not been told the entire truth She was told that 26 disabled peoplewould be aniving the next day to loam to crochet, "I knew I had been screwedbut I still thought there must be a reason - maybe they don't comprehendwhat a project means. "I Imew how to do one on one, I knew how to knit, butit wasn't something you fly halfway round the world to teach someone." HerKiwi can-do kicked in and slw set off Pot the local market to find anyonewho could crochet. "lion Khmer Rouge had destroyed an entire generation ofskills and knowledge. "Cambodia is like a computer whose hard drive has beenwiped out but luckily I found one woman who remembered a bit of crocheting."Reloop Designs was bum, and while 0 wdl never mocha mass market, a recentdeal with an American cathlogue is set to send sales soarthg as much asthey- are able. Yoffe can't hold back he tears when she talks about thehandicraft workers. "I was an touched at how hard everyone worked, howenthusiastic they were, how renames.. "At Hoot the results wereff t thatgood Hut after three weeks they were amazing." With her first batch ofdesigns completed to her exacting standanis, Yolk flew back to New York andset about selling thetn through evo boutiques. Every piece comes with theanisan's name, and as she says. "every piece comes with a Shortly before sheanived back at her moth-er's Narrow Neck home, she had responded to arogrest to supply Hilary Clinton with a bag. That coupled with the catalogueorder gives her hope that one day, she'll he able to set up similar projectsin other parts of the country, or her example will be copied by others inother disadvantaged parts of the world. In the meantime she is happy to havelen the pressuns of an executive career for something much dearer to herheart. For information on Reloop Designs visit the websitehttp://www.reloopdesigns.org